Driving through Phantom Canyon, one would have to take a deliberate look to see any impacts from the Eightmile Fire burning six miles northeast of Cañon City on federal land.

The lightning-caused fire, however, has wreaked havoc just beyond a rocky ridge near the second tunnel on Phantom Canyon Road.

Officials with the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service and the Rocky Mountain Area Incident Management Team B met with the Daily Record at the point of the fire's origin Thursday and talked about the steps that were taken to manage the fire and the activity that took place between the time it grew from one acre to about 528 acres.

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Crews hiked a ridge, about a half mile, to get below the fire after it was reported just after 5 p.m. June 23, but they were forced out because of thunderstorms. The following day, officials, including Royal Gorge Field Office Manager Keith Berger, Joe Lobiando of the State Forest Service, BLM Fire Management Officer Ty Webb, U.S. Forest Service Fire Manager Diana Allen, Sheriff Jim Beicker and Fremont County Emergency Manager Steve Morrisey, collaborated and decided to use a "confine and contain" strategy.

Photos of the Eightmile Fire burn area as taken Thursday from Phantom Canyon Road. The landscape on the other side of the hill is more rugged, including steep rock faces and cliff bands. (Brandon Hopper / Daily Record)

"That is where we back off from the fire a little bit and use the topography to help us build some fire line or a way to contain a place that's safe," Berger said.

Crews began working on containment lines June 25. Also that day, about 24 personnel and local resources, including engine crews, a fuels crew and a 10-person AmeriCorps crew were assigned to the fire. Fire behavior the first few days was minimal, Berger said.

"We worked on constructing a line up there (June 25 and 26)," he said. "We just about had all our lines in place and tied together on that Thursday evening. We came off the fire that Thursday evening, and the weather shifted at that point in time."

Berger said the wind was an unforeseen, unpredictable change in weather.

"Everybody saw how that fire grew Thursday, and obviously Friday when the winds really got on it, and we got in the burning period, that triggered us to go back and that's when we ordered (the Rocky Mountain Area Incident Management Team B)."

Some of the variables fire managers consider in the initial stage of the fire include the weather forecast, fire behavior at the time and the proximity to other values, particularly private land.

"We take all of those things into consideration and try and come up with a good strategy for that unique situation," Berger said. "What we find is every situation is different, so you end up coming up with different strategies and try and fit what's best for that particular situation."

Fire progression map/Eightmile Fire. (Brandon Hopper / Daily Record)

The overriding concern, Berger said, is public and firefighter safety. He said officials considered the risk of sending individuals to the fire, where they would be running chainsaws and swinging axes in steep, rugged territory.

"One of the dangers is stuff rolling down from the fire — hot embers, pinecones — and catching below them," Berger said. "We thought trying to get our folks directly engaged and actively suppressing the fire right next to it was probably not a good idea. The risk was just too great."

He said every fire is unique, and if there would have been different weather conditions or different topography, alternate action may have been taken in the beginning stages.

But it's not as simple as making water or retardant drops. Boots need to be on the ground to work the fire.

"Think about drowning a campfire, you just dump water on there, it's not going to take all the heat out, you've got to get in and stir it up," he said. "Just putting water or retardant on it doesn't alleviate the fact that we'd have to put folks in there actually working that fire."

Because retardant is slick on the ground, that also would have made conditions more hazardous to fire personnel maneuvering on steep terrain. Berger said there also was the a risk to putting pilots in the air in the canyon environment."

"Ultimately, our objectives are to keep the public and our firefighters safe, to keep this on federal land and not affect any homeowners, not get onto private property," he said. "We had those objectives at the outset, and we met those objectives.

"It wasn't quite in the way we had planned, but you have to adapt to fire."

Dan Dallas, incident commander with the Rocky Mountain Area Incident Command Team B, said after assessing the fire upon assuming command June 28, he wouldn't have done anything different.

"Not a thing," he said. " I couldn't give them anything else (that they could tried)."

He said the hard west wind that blew in and fanned the flames was unexpected. The following two days had hard wind, low humidity and hot temperatures.

Diana Allen, forest fire management officer for the U.S. Forest Service, said officials are more cognizant nowadays of firefighter safety when making decisions, especially after the 2013 Yarnell Hill Fire in Arizona that killed 19 firefighters.

"Those things are always in the back of our mind," she said. "We've left too many fallen firefighters on the hill. ...When I look at them, they are somebody's sons and somebody's daughters out there fighting the fire."

She said the perspective used to be "everything at all costs."

"Sometimes the cost is too great," she said.

The fire will continue to burn until the area gets a good, hard rain, but officials are confident it is as contained as much possible, and it's not likely to have any more movement. Retardant is around the fire perimeter, and the incident management team left behind a long-term plan when they transitioned command back to the local managers Thursday morning.

There has been no impact on Phantom Canyon Road, and the view of the Gold Belt Byway Tour has not changed.

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